Partner with the enterprise Linux leader: A guide to validating your software on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

The global enterprise software market is projected to reach USD 517.26 billion by 2030. At the heart of this growth is Linux, which represents the market's largest and fastest-growing server spending segment with a 15.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2028. For enterprises navigating this landscape, one platform stands out as the trusted foundation for their critical applications: Red Hat^Ⓡ Enterprise Linux^Ⓡ .

Our research shows that customers actively seek and prefer vendor-certified applications; having access to a wide selection of certified applications is a critical factor in their choice of a Linux distribution. They trust Red Hat Enterprise Linux for its reliability, security, long-term stability, and suitability for enterprise applications. By validating your software on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you align your solution with these core enterprise values and gain access to a vast, high-value customer base.

The best solutions are built together. We're committed to helping our partners test and validate their products on our platform to meet this customer demand. This guide outlines a simple, four-step process for infrastructure software vendors to validate their solutions and publish them in the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog, our storefront for trusted partner applications.

Validate your software in 4 strategic steps

1. Become a Red Hat partner

Your journey begins by joining our collaborative community. If your company is not yet part of our ecosystem, the first step is to register for the Red Hat Partner Program.

• Our user documentation provides all the information you need to join.
• If your company is already a partner, simply request to join your company's existing profile.
• If you need assistance, our global Partner Acceleration Desk can troubleshoot any issues with registration.

2. Validate your product

Once you're a partner, you can begin the validation process. The goal is to verify your product's functionality on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, ensuring it works just as seamlessly on our platform as it does in any other environment.

• You can conduct testing using a Red Hat Partner Subscription (RHPS), which provides access to our software for development and testing purposes.
• You define the test criteria. Red Hat partners are empowered to verify their product's functionality in accordance with their own high support standards for validation. We do not mandate specific tests; however, we encourage you to verify lifecycle management, performance benchmarks, and security compliance in addition to functional testing.

This step is crucial for building customer confidence and ensuring a seamless support experience.

3. Document your compatibility

Clear, accessible documentation is essential for our mutual customers and is a requirement for your catalog listing.

• Specify your official support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux in your standard product documentation, such as a support matrix or installation guide.
• Link to multiple documentation types in your catalog listing, including reference architectures, blog posts, user guides, whitepapers, and videos.
• Develop documentation that covers how customers can install and run your application on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

4. Publish your listing in the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog

With validation complete and documentation in hand, you are ready to share your solution with the world. The final step is to create your product listing in the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog.

• To publish, you will need a complete company profile, a product listing, and signed legal terms and conditions.
• Follow our step-by-step Red Hat software certification workflow guide to start the validation workflow and publish your listing.

The strategic advantage of partnering with Red Hat

Validating your software on Red Hat Enterprise Linux is an advantageous way to accelerate growth and innovation together. The value of being in partnership with Red Hat includes, but is not limited to:

• Access to a valuable enterprise market: By partnering with Red Hat and utilizing Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you connect your brand to one of the most recognized and widely adopted Linux distribution in the enterprise market. With Red Hat, you can reach top customers across key verticals like financial services, government, healthcare, and telco.
• Align with customer priorities: Commercial software is a key driver of Red Hat Enterprise Linux adoption, with 62% of our customers running third-party commercial applications. By validating your products, you meet a direct customer need and align your brand with the attributes they value most: reliability, security, and long-term stability.
• Tap into high-growth workloads: The enterprise landscape is rapidly evolving, driven by trends such as AI, digitization, and hybrid cloud. Linux is the engine for this growth, especially for data management, AI/ML, security, and logging workloads. Our ecosystem is the ideal place for partners in these high-demand categories to thrive.
• Create new revenue opportunities: Partners who offer commercial versions of open source software, validation on Red Hat Enterprise Linux creates a powerful "free-to-fee" motion. Customers running community versions of software on the platform represent a significant upsell opportunity for our ISV partners.

Get started today!

Joining the Red Hat partner ecosystem and validating your Red Hat Enterprise workload creates powerful opportunities for shared growth. To ensure an excellent support experience for our joint customers, we also recommend establishing a collaborative support relationship.

Ready to begin?

• Become a Red Hat partner to start your validation journey.
• If you have questions about partner registration or Red Hat Enterprise Linux, contact the Partner Acceleration Desk by logging into your account and submitting a support ticket.